Origin of kefir grains is Caucasus. Most suitable microflora kefir grains are selected for most beneficial microflora to health. As these grains grow over time for a long time, their homeland is Turkey. Important thing is to protect microflora in suitable way.

As long as you are careful about hygiene conditions, there is no harm but you need to understand benefits of “probiotic and prebiotic”. This way you can only benefit from milk content. We don’t recommend producing kefir this way.

Because as we have mentioned above, these kefir products have limited variety and number of bacteria. Kefirzadem kefir that we produce in Isparta are produced only from natural grains. Shelf life of this kefir is shorter than normal kefir as these are more active.

We recommend pasteurized milk. Our one and only conditions is this. No matter which milk you use, you should choose milks with heat treatment. This way, you can eliminate harmful bacteria in the milk.

Although kefir microflora activity decreases in the fridge, it will slowly continue. Kefir can get concentrated and serum can be separated. None of them have any harm. We recommend consuming kefir in fridge in 1 week. Your kefir will be so delicious that it will end in no time!

Kefir grains may be activated too much, grown too much, or environmental temperature may be too high or you may have kept it for too long. You should keep environmental temperature at moderate levels. If number of grains increase too much, separate some grains or increase amount of milk. It is better using a jar (do not completely fill it) rather than bottle.

You should ferment kefir during days in winter and during night in summer. In cold winter days, your house is warmer in daytime. 15-18 hours of fermentation will be enough at this temperature. In hot summer days, temperature can exceed 40 °C. If you ferment your kefir during daytime, fermentation will be fast. If your house is cooler at night, you should ferment your kefir at night. Fermentation time of kefir will be affected from temperature and fermentation time should neither be long or short. This time can go up to 22 hours during winter and can go down to 10 hours during summer. Ideal fermentation time of kefir is 18 hours at 25 °C. Since kefir has extremely intense natural microflora, it can be affected from conditional differences. You will understand this better as you make your own kefir.

Rather than size of starter, activity is important. Important thing is to prepare kefir correctly and store your yeas at correct conditions. Special drying process we apply to present this valuable kefir starter to consumer, we are keeping microflora of grains and shrink the size (water is discarded during drying). But when your starter is activated, the size will grow.

This is just a recommendation. Think of what you do in your own kitchen. You have raw meat, egg, vegetables, fruits, and raw milk. You are probably cleaning your kitchen but your environment may not be as sterilized as you like. Harmful content can easily pass to sensitive systems like kefir grains. Therefore, we recommend changing your starter after a while for food safety. With good care, you can use your kefir starter for 20-25 times. But you may need to change it early if you lack your care! You will decide when to change it. If you take good care of your grains, and if you are used to the consistency of your kefir, you can continue to use this starter.

Please check if looks and smell of kefir grains are different after washing once a week. You know how healthy grains should look like (creamy color) and smell. Stop using kefir starter when you see dark yellow color, excessive sticky look, abnormal look, bad odor, flat grains rather than circular forms, excessive hardness. Your kefir may get harmful content from bottle, spoon, glass, strain, or funnel used in kefir production. These microbes can grow inside grain. This will change normal look and odor of grain. If you experience something like this, your grain no longer has good microflora but harmful bacteria. Do not use this starter.